Happy Birthday Commodore 64!

Issue 50 of Zzap! 64

The Commodore 64 is 30 years old this year and it went on sale in August 1982 so I think it’s about time I wished it a happy birthday. Back then I was messing on a Commodore Vic 20 (or more likely it was 1984 or so), then I had a Speccy and I didn’t get my hands on a C64 until 1989. It was already declining somewhat but it still had a few years of life left in it. Issue 50 of Zzap! 64 was the first issue of that famous magazine I owned. My brother and I bought it in Paul’s Street Shopping Centre! The newsagent is long gone but I have that issue around here somewhere ..

Matt Allen visited a primary school and a secondary school and asked kids there what they thought of the Commodore 64. I don’t think they were impressed by loading errors and long loading times. He probably should have brought a 1541 disk drive and an Action Replay cartridge!

Hopefully the embed code below still runs. The BBC website has a ridiculously long parameter that I’m sure WordPress is going to eat.

I used to love reading Zzap! 64 and it’s Spectrum-focused sister magazine, Crash, cover-to-cover every month; I think I actually got more enjoyment out of the reviews and previews than playing the actual games.

At one point, my future career plan essentially consisted of catching the ferry and just turning up in Ludlow, where they were based.

The Golden Compass
First of a three part fantasy/sci-fi series. Some people hate it because of it's anti God message but it's a great read. I found it hard to put down. There's even a Snopes article about the film adaptation.